People:
Mr. John Dashwood and his wife, Fanny Dashwood, both weak and greedy.
Text: “The promise was given and must be performed. Something must be done for them whenever they leave Norland and settle in a new home,” John declared.
“Well, then, let something be done for them; but that something need not be three thousand pounds. When that money is once parted, it never can return,” Fanny Dashwood said.
John replied, “Perhaps, then, it would be better for all parties if the sum were diminished by half-five hundred pounds each would be a prodigious increase to their fortune! Or perhaps I should do an annuity for their mother while she lives. My sisters would feel the good effects of it as well as herself. A hundred a year would make them all perfectly comfortable.”
“But then if Mrs. Dashwood should live fifteen years, we shall be completely taken in. If you observe, people always live forever when there is any annuity to be paid them; and she is very stout and healthy, and hardly forty. An annuity is very serious business,” Fanny reminded. “And I am convinced within myself that your father had no idea of your giving them any money at all. The assistance that he thought of, I dare say, was looking out for a comfortable, small house for them, helping them move, and sending them presents of fish and game, whenever they are in season. I’ll lay my life that he meant nothing farther, indeed.” And so, with little effort, Fanny talked John out of his generous offer and placed his mind at ease about his promise to his father.
Emotion: Greed
Insight: Ecclesiastes 5:10 says, “He that loves money shall not be satisfied with money; nor he who loves wealth with his income.”
John Dashwood was weak, succumbing to the greedy motives of his wife. May we learn to value the things that last longer than money. Let’s not let greed take hold in our hearts, understanding that life consists much more than temporary, material things.
